As performing elections go, last week’s effort in Lenoir County could’ve gone worse.

Lenoir County elections director Dana King said only minor problems were reported from poll workers as people voted throughout the day.

“Just regular batteries going dead or something like that,” King said. “Keyboards — the batteries went dead in them — and of course, we changed them and started right back up, but it didn’t stop them from doing anything, because they still had a mouse and the laptop itself. We just give them a cordless mouse and keyboard.

“Other than the simple things, nothing went wrong that we know of.”

A 2012 study on voter technology preparedness put together for the Verified Voting Foundation gave two examples in Eastern North Carolina when things didn’t go as planned.

According to the study, “In October 2010 in Craven County, North Carolina touch screen (direct-recording electronic voting machines, or DREs) changed votes for straight Republican tickets to votes for straight Democrat tickets. Election officials attributed the problem to calibration and noted that they ‘would prefer to see a return to paper balloting.’ ”

And in Carteret County a few years earlier, there was another snafu when a voting machine memory limitation caused the loss of 4,500 votes.

“Because the machines did not use voter-marked paper ballots or produce a (voter verifiable paper audit trail, or VVPAT) it was impossible to determine how those lost votes should have been counted,” according to the study. “North Carolina subsequently deployed paper ballot optical scan and VVPAT-equipped DRE voting machines statewide.”

The final tally of the votes was later in Lenoir County than some nearby counties and dissatisfaction was expressed by some people waiting for the numbers to come in at the county Board of Elections offices on Election Day.

King said the process is when the last person has voted, poll workers print a vote total tape, shut down the machines and transport the tape and the master personal electronic ballot — or PEB — which contains the precinct’s information, to the county Board of Elections.

From there, the PEBs are placed into a central tabulator and sent to the State Board of Elections.

According to the official website reporting real-time vote tabulations, Lenoir County made its final update at 10:06 p.m., Tuesday. Greene and Jones counties, which have significantly fewer residents than Lenoir County, had their last updates at 9:08 p.m. and 8:49 p.m., respectively.

Pitt County’s last update occurred at 9:13 p.m., and Pitt County elections director David Davis said the method there is much the same as the method here, with data units brought in by hand.

“I had 11 precincts open, so I had to wait for all of them to get here to finalize everything, and of course two of those were all the way in La Grange and all the way in Pink Hill,” King said.

Some voting machines used elsewhere have the ability to upload voting data remotely, instead of having to be personally transported to an election headquarters.

King said, however, she wanted the votes to come in no later than 8:30-9 p.m., and that didn’t happen.

“My precincts were a little later this time getting in than I expected them to be,” King said.

She said she’ll speak to the poll workers at their next meeting to find out where the problems may have been.

Wes Wolfe can be reached at 252-559-1075 and Wes.Wolfe@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter at @WolfeReports.